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Ivan G Thompson

The Air Force's Black Pilot Training Experience

Synopsis

“The Air Force’s Black Pilot Training Experience,” focuses on the experiences of black pilots in Air Force pilot training. The purpose of the book is to enlighten senior Air Force leadership and propose actions that would help minority pilots to be more successful in pilot training. This book is a sequel to “The Air Force’s Black Ceiling” currently available on Amazon. This book builds on insights shared in “The Air Force’s Black Ceiling” and reinforces them with the experiences of black pilots from the Tuskegee Airmen era to the present. The book also includes new research that connects the expectancy theory of motivation and the success of black pilots in pilot training.

Author Biography

Ivan Thompson is the CEO of Launch Productions. He is a singer/songwriter, actor, author, business consultant, and inventor. Ivan’s books have garnered rave reviews and are available on Amazon as well as all major retailer websites. Ivan has published multiple Christian titles, an exceptional book about diversity in the Air Force, a fitness book and a book to help new writers become published authors. Ivan’s audiobooks are also available on Audible.
Ivan has over 25 years consulting senior military and civilian leaders. He has conducted senior leadership off-sites, strategic planning sessions and served as the Deputy Director of the Defense Business Practice Implementation Board. As the Deputy, he helped facilitate and lead Task Groups for the Secretary of Defense comprised of senior DoD civilians and retired and active Fortune 500 CEOs. As a singer/songwriter, he has performed the National Anthem for the Los Angeles Lakers, Dodgers, LA Kings, St. Louis Rams, LA Sparks, NASCAR, NCAA and was a guest soloist on the Bobby Jones Gospel show and Tom Joyner show. He has performed across the US and Europe as Tour Director of the Air Force’s Tops in Blue traveling entertainment team.

Author Insight

Expectancy Theory and Majority Culture

“The Air Force’s Black Pilot Training Experience,” focuses on the experiences of black pilots in Air Force pilot training. The purpose of the book is to enlighten senior Air Force leadership and propose actions that would help minority pilots to be more successful in pilot training. This book is a sequel to “The Air Force’s Black Ceiling” currently available on Amazon. This book builds on insights shared in “The Air Force’s Black Ceiling” and reinforces them with the experiences of black pilots from the Tuskegee Airmen era to the present. The book also includes new research that connects the expectancy theory of motivation and the success of black pilots in pilot training.

Book Excerpt

The Air Force's Black Pilot Training Experience

Expectancy Theory and Success in Majority Culture

Successfully navigating majority culture is not one of the “abilities” referred to in the expectancy theory research that I was able to find. I believe, however, for minority students, that their perceived ability to be successful in a majority dominated environment, is a significant factor in their confidence in successfully completing pilot training. I believe that the ability to successfully navigate majority culture is a skill that directly impacts the confidence of minority students in pilot training. For some students, it may be as critical a skill as being able to learn the flight controls and instrumentation. It is an additional skill that students from the majority white culture do not have to contend with.

In my Air Force career and in my research for this book, I found a consistent theme: those minorities who had gained experience operating in majority culture whether in their neighborhood, elementary or high school or college, expressed greater confidence in dealing with the majority white culture that is prevalent in Air Force pilot training. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I observed that those who grew up in a predominantly minority neighborhood, went to predominantly minority schools and perhaps even a Historically Black College/University (HBCU), struggled with operating in the majority culture.

As previously mentioned “controllable attributions increase self-efficacy… People with a strong sense of self-efficacy for a given task (“I’m good at math”) tend to attribute their failures to lack of effort (“I should have double-checked my work”).” (Woolfolk, 10th Edition) As I reviewed the interviews I found that generally, students who had greater experience operating in majority culture expressed that dealing with the negative aspects of being a minority in a majority environment was something that was in their control. Specifically, these students expressed that they could overcome negative effects such as stereotypes, bias, and even outright discrimination by simply working harder than everyone else.

Students who did not have the same degree of experience in operating in majority culture saw dealing with these same negative effects as something that impacted their ability to succeed but to some degree was outside their control.

To be clear, we are not talking about the ability to learn principles of flight or how to maneuver and fly an airplane. We are talking about how the skill of operating in majority culture affects the minority student’s self-efficacy, his or her belief that they can succeed at the task of becoming a pilot in the United States Air Force.

It was fascinating to me to look at survey responses of pilot training students who clearly had the aptitude to fly based on prior flight time, etc. but struggled with the notion of becoming a pilot simply because the negative effects of majority culture were deemed as being mostly outside their control.

It was equally fascinating to see students who believed that they could successfully overcome instructor stereotypes, bias, and even racism simply by increasing their own efforts. Again, I believe these students confidence was based on their previous experience in operating in the majority culture. Previous experience is a key component to motivation and expectations for success. (ASU Sanford Inspire Program, 2015)